Palestinian official says political parties not required to recognize Israel

Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-04 00:19:15|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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RAMALLAH, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- A senior official of the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party said Friday that Palestinian political parties are not required to recognize Israel or any other states.

Secretary General of Fateh party's Revolutionary Council Majid Al-Fityani told Xinhua that no political faction or party is particularly required to recognize Israel and that such a thing is considered "an unacceptable intervention" into internal Palestinian affairs.

Al-Fityanis said nobody demanded the government coalition parties in Israel to recognize the agreements signed with the Palestinians and that no current or coming Palestinian government shall be mandated to recognize Israel, since the Palestine Liberation Organization already recognizes Israel and is mandated with the political issues.

He stressed that the mutual recognition is a state's matter, not of political parties and that the national reconciliation process is moving forward.

This comes against the backdrop of statements by U.S. special representative for international negotiation, Jason Greenblatt, in which he welcomed the deployment of Palestinian National Authority officers at the Gaza Strip crossings, and requested that "any Palestinian government must unambiguously and explicitly commit to nonviolence, recognize the state of Israel, accept previous agreements and obligations between the parties, including to disarm terrorists, and commit to a negotiated solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."

Greenblatt's emailed statement went on to say "if Hamas is to play a role in a Palestinian government, it must accept these basic requirements."